


May Spring Come

by Melinaa



Category: Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series
Genre: F/M, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, PL Amino, Spring, When they were younger, this is a scene from my fanfic "The Cogs of Time"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-12-26 05:22:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18276626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melinaa/pseuds/Melinaa
Summary: It was an old photography of Hershel and her.It showed her and Hershel during their lunchbreak on the campus. They were both sitting in the grass, Hershel leaning against a tree, having his arms wrapped around Claire’s waist. while Claire had her legs over his, a paper block on her lap and was chewing on the end of a pencil which she was always doing while thinking. Hershel had given her a riddle to solve and was smiling softly at her. Claire still remembered how surprised she had been when Hershel had given her the riddle before pulling her close. He had never been one to show much affection when they were around other people (always trying to be a gentleman, already then). “Let’s see if you can solve this riddle”, he had whispered into her ear and smiled softly. Claire had looked at him a bit startled before she’d kissed his cheek and started to solve the riddle. In the end, she hadn’t been able to do so because Clark, who had taken the picture without their knowledge had approached them with a “Hey, you two lovebirds!” and they had quickly parted a bit, spending their lunchbreak with him, forgetting about the riddle.("The Cogs of Time", Chapter 1)





	May Spring Come

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Cogs of Time](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12911190) by [Melinaa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melinaa/pseuds/Melinaa). 



> Hi!   
> As you could read in the tags and the summary, this is a scene from my fanfic "The Cogs of Time". I actually wanted to draw this but I'm a horrible artist, so I returned to writing. Also inspired by the Cherry Blossom Season in Japan and Yuzuru Hanyu's breathtaking performance at the World Figure Skating Championship's gala last week ^^ 
> 
> So, basically just some nice LayClaire fluff while they were still at university and happy and alive ^^

May Spring Come 

*

It was one of the first warm and sunny days of spring this year when Claire dragged him outside.

“Seriously Hershel, you can’t just sit inside all day! You’ve studied enough for today. Tell me, why do I always have to force you into your luck?” She didn’t seem interested in an answer at all, so he confined himself to a chuckle and letting himself be pulled outside.

The had to blink a few times once the sun hit his face. He had been sitting in the library since early this morning when it had still been a bit foggy, having to finish an important assignment. He could have done that at home as well, but the flat always seemed so empty when Claire was gone. And he had needed a specific book to continue his work, so he had accompanied her to the university this morning and gone to the library when she had gone to her lectures. It was six hours later now which he had apparently not noticed, and Claire had somehow track him down in the library and dragged him outside.

“See? You’re horrible, Hershel! Seriously, how did you manage to survive without me?” she pretended to sound annoyed but couldn’t hide her laugh.

He asked himself the exact same question sometimes, too. Just to be honest.

Claire slowed down her steps to look at him. “Really, Hershel. I know that you have an important assignment to finish but you have to look after yourself. I can’t look after three people at the same time!” She stopped and took his face between her hands to examine his face. “Are you alright?”

He frowned severely. “Three people?”

Her eyes widened. “I – I mean, I…,” she stammered blushing. “I – I meant in like several people. I already have to look after Dimitri! He’s no better. Seriously, I’m not your mother… don’t look at me like that!”

It must have been his not entirely convinced gaze on his face. Then, he chuckled. “Alright, alright, my apologies. You are right, dear. What do you suggest we do now?”

She huffed before she dropped to the ground, lying flat on the grass with the hands behind her head and her eyes closed. “Now, my dear, we relax. Come, sit down. You need it.”

Hershel shook his head, smiling to himself, and sat down beneath one of the trees here. They were shining in the most different colours, yellow, green, red, the flowers were even more colourful. It truly was a nice sight.

He breathed in the fresh spring air and rummaged around in his bag to pull out a pad and a pencil. Clark had given him a puzzle just the other day and he didn’t have the time yet to take a proper look at it, not even mentioning solving it.

The campus provided a truly relaxing atmosphere around midday. Most of the students were in the cafeteria getting lunch, only some of them sitting outside. After the grey and cold days of winter and the usual rain in London, it was a refreshing change. He looked around to watch the students walking around, some alone, others in groups, some couples. Some of them were sitting in the grass with books, studying. Like he should do. But Claire was right, he knew that he had done enough for now.

He had gotten along quite well with his assignment, in sheer contrast to this puzzle. He looked around again. He feared he might not get anywhere with it even though puzzles usually relaxed him; his head was still full of archaeologic facts and the Azran myths he had been researching the past weeks. He tilted his head back to look at the tree he was sitting beneath. 

Its petals were blooming in the lightest shade of pink. He could see some of them swaying in the wind softly. It was a truly relaxing sight. One of the petals got loose and fell down. His gaze followed it until it landed on Claire’s sprawled out hair. He caught her gaze, and she smiled.

“Now you’re looking relaxed again. That’s way better than when you are stressed,” she sighed contently before she closed her eyes.

“Stressed? I wasn’t stressed at all, that was you.”

She giggled. “Nope, you were. You always frown way too hard and look like you never smile. It’s a really depressing sight, you know? Anyway, what are you doing there? Another puzzle?”

She sat up and shuffled closer to him to take a look at his pad while Hershel leaned back against the tree. She ended up taking the pat to examine the puzzle. She frowned. “That’s an archaeological one; I thought it was a physical and mathematical puzzle.” She gave it back to him. “I’m sorry, I think I can’t help you there.”

“Don’t worry, dear.” He turned the page and scribbled down something. Claire always admired how he could write so quickly yet so neatly. Her writing was the horrible on of a doctor which would cause three misdiagnoses a year even if she had time to write it down and was in no hurry.

“Here, try this. It’s one I picked up only recently. I didn’t have the time to look at it properly yet.” He handed it to her before he suddenly placed an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. “Let’s see if you can solve this riddle,” he whispered into her ear. Claire leaned back to watch him closely before her frown turned into a smile. She wasn’t used to him being so affectionate in public.

She kissed his cheek before she eagerly returned to the puzzle. A lot of math and physics, just how she liked it.

Hershel stroked her back lightly, his hand slowly traveling higher until he fondled with a strand of her hair. It was quite disturbing. “Hershel, stop that. I can’t concentrate,” she murmured fuzzily, chewing on the end of Hershel’s pencil. Well, her pencil now like so many others already because of this horrible habit of hers.

“Maybe it would work better if you didn’t bite my pencil to death?” he suggested.

“What?... Oh, sorry! I didn’t mean to… How many pencils is that now?” She sounded contrite.

Hershel chuckled lightly. “The seventh.”

“Only?”

“Oh no. I stopped counting when we started dating last year.”

“Oh god!” She let her head fall onto the pad. “I’m so sorry! I’m horrible! I’ll give you a bunch of pencils for your next birthday, promise!”

His chuckle turned into a laugh and he didn’t stop until Claire would join him. It felt liberating after the entire morning spent in the university. It was like the two of them kept each other sane. Without each other they would spend way too much time over their books studying and never look after themselves. They always reminded each other of it.

“Hey, you two lovebirds!” they suddenly heard someone call out. Hershel quickly leaned back and put his hands away from her while Claire backed away from him. While she didn’t mind being close to him wherever they were, she knew that he wasn’t comfortable with affection when others were around, even if it were their friends, and she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable.

Clark came over to them, smirking widely. “There you are! I guess I owe it to you, Claire, that I couldn’t find him in the library but enjoying the nice weather!” He beamed at her.

Claire grinned. “Guilty! But can you really blame me?”

He laughed. “No, not at all. But I actually wanted to ask something else. I’ll be picking up Brenda from her lecture later and we wanted wondered if you’d like to have lunch with us?”

They looked at each other shortly, then nodded and got up. As they followed Clark, Claire leaned up to Hershel and murmured, “I’m ninety-four percent certain that this is just a pretence to ask us to look after Luke this weekend again.”

“Would you mind? Their son is truly wonderful. If the weather stays that nice, we can go outside with him,” he whispered back.

“Nope,” Claire smiled linking arms with him. “I don’t mind at all.”


End file.
